Are Medicare Robocalls a Scam: How to Spot One and Where to Report It

How Medicare really contacts you

Medicare’s communication with beneficiaries is mostly paper and portal: the Medicare & You handbook, Medicare Summary Notices, and your account at Medicare.gov. Medicare may call you if you called first and left a message, or if a representative needs to follow up on something you started. It does not call to sell you a plan, offer supplies, or “update” your card. Medicare cards were reissued in 2018 without Social Security numbers, and that process required no call and no fee.

Private Medicare Advantage and Part D plans are regulated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, whose marketing rules prohibit unsolicited contact. An agent may call you only if you asked for the call, and the rules require documented permission before a sales appointment. A cold recorded call from “a licensed Medicare agent” is outside those rules by definition.

The scripts, and what each one is after

• “You qualify for a free back brace / knee brace.” Durable medical equipment fraud. The caller bills Medicare for braces you did not need, using your number.
• “Medicare now covers genetic cancer screening.” Genetic testing fraud. A swab kit arrives, a lab bills Medicare thousands, and your number is now in a fraud ring’s file.
• “Your Medicare card is expiring / needs to be replaced with a plastic card.” Identity harvesting. Medicare cards do not expire and there is no plastic upgrade.
• “Your benefits are about to change; press 1 to speak to a specialist.” A lead-generation funnel. Pressing 1 routes you to a sales floor that may or may not be a licensed agency.
• “This is Medicare calling about your account.” A generic hook, usually spoofing a government-looking number, to get you to confirm your Medicare number.

Why the calls spike every fall

Medicare Open Enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7. Legitimate plans advertise heavily, and scammers use the same window because beneficiaries expect to hear about Medicare and are more likely to engage. Call volume climbs in September and stays high through early December. A recorded call during that window is no more likely to be legitimate than at any other time; it is more likely to be a scam because the season gives it cover.

How to verify a Medicare call

1. Hang up. Do not press any button, including “press 2 to be removed,” which only confirms a live number.
2. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227), the number on the back of your card, and ask whether anyone contacted you. Representatives can see your account activity.
3. If the caller named a plan, look the plan up at Medicare.gov and call the plan’s listed number to ask whether it placed the call.
4. Check your Medicare Summary Notices over the following months for equipment or tests you did not receive.

Where to report a Medicare scam call

• 1-800-MEDICARE for any call claiming to be from Medicare, and for suspected fraudulent billing on your account.
• HHS Office of Inspector General hotline, 1-800-HHS-TIPS, for Medicare fraud.
• Senior Medicare Patrol in your state, which helps beneficiaries document and report fraud.
• FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and the FCC consumer complaint center for the robocall itself.

The general procedure, including what to write down before you file, is on how to report a robocall.

If you gave out your Medicare number

Call 1-800-MEDICARE and report it. Medicare can flag your account and, in cases of confirmed misuse, issue a new Medicare number. Review every Summary Notice for charges you do not recognize and report each one. If you also gave bank information, contact your bank the same day. Then decide whether the call came from an anonymous scam or a real marketing company; the second kind can be a TCPA claim, and that question is answered on Medicare robocalls: scam to report or marketer you can sue.

Related: Medicare robocalls: scam or suable marketer · How to report a robocall · Robocall help for seniors · Health insurance robocalls